High on Life

High on Life brings swearing, talking guns and a highly rated bounty-hunting adventure from space to your console from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin ...

Follow us on Twitter [@Spacedotcom](https://twitter.com/SPACEdotcom) (opens in new tab) or Follow her on Twitter [@howellspace](https://twitter.com/howellspace) (opens in new tab). [Trover Saves the Universe](https://squanchgames.com/trover-saves-the-universe/) (opens in new tab) and [ Dr. [Why Am I Taller](https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=72128&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FWhy-Am-Taller-Happens-Astronauts%2Fdp%2F1770415963%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dspace-us-3277792969803388400-20) (opens in new tab)?" But Squanch reassures us that you will have the tools to deal with them because "your guns talk," meaning that the guns are literally sentient and have character voices, which sounds incredible. [space](https://www.space.com/24870-what-is-space.html) game High On Life launched today (Dec.

High on Life, made by the studio founded by Justin Roiland and Tanya Watson, is a first-person shooter featuring talkative guns and an alien space cartel who ...

-- Dalton Cooper [ [](https://gamerant.com/author/dalton/) [Full review]](https://gamerant.com/high-on-life-review/) However, if you are fond of or can stand Roiland’s comedy, you will find a galactic first-person shooter that is as comfortable in its shooting mechanics as it is on delivering absurdist humor." "Those admittedly serious technical concerns aside, High on Life is otherwise a consistently entertaining game from start to finish. Much like the bisected teddybear you find bleeding out in one particular canyon, High on Life just wants to be put out of its misery." "Aside from a botched attempt to rebottle Rick and Morty as a first-person shooter, High on Life is a covert playable manifesto for games in general as callous, explicit and made up of false choices - incubation vats, in short, for cavalier dickheads. "Like Rick and Morty’s Pickle Rick episode, High on Life doesn’t build to a grand punch line.

High On Life has a whole bunch of posters that are incredibly uncanny, missing iris', messing up limbs, and all the other hallmarks of AI art.

But it's not just art that Roiland and developer Squanch Games used AI for, as lead designer Erich Meyr told Sky News that they used AI to prototype character voices, with one minor role even making the cut. And once again, aside from poor ethics, it's just not that good. Those blunders are incredibly common because AI art struggles with a lot of human anatomy, resulting in horrifying messes that tend to blend features or miss out key parts altogether. It also, as Roiland does in his quote, implies that art is grunt work, rather than a form of expression to be celebrated. I don't know what the future holds, but AI is going to be a tool that has potential to make content creation incredibly accessible." All hallmarks of [the unncanny valley that is AI-generated art](https://www.thegamer.com/ai-generated-art-wins-competition/).

Justin Roiland and Squanch Games' newest Xbox joint 'High on Life' is high on absurdist humor and alien guns, but one surprising '90s gag reigns supreme.

For the folks at Squanch to (nearly) one-up it with a movie that’s several orders of magnitude worse, and thus more funny, is a towering achievement. In 2007, there was a shooter called The Darkness. It’s a little on the buggy side, but that’s alright. The shooting is simple, dumb fun, and you get a variety of weapons and movement abilities to keep things fresh. It’s not an ideal way to watch a movie, but it single-handedly sold me on High on Life. But High on Life has pizazz for days and, in particular, one hell of a gag involving a strange, forgotten '90s movie.

We are on the precipice of a very strange era in all the creative fields, from writing to art to video game development, because of the advent of generative ...

There’s no putting it back in the box, and actual regulation seems unlikely to curb the tech which is growing in power and reach exponentially. This is just the first warning shot of AI’s potential pending incursion into game. It’s a case of directly replacing an artist in this High on Life use case. If you’re familiar with Midjourney, the signature weirdness of the generated images is on full display, as this is using pieces from an older version, not the new v4 version that has been generating imagery that’s somewhat less bizarre than its former variants. Even though in almost all cases one artist can’t point at something and go “that’s my image,” the sampling data is taking from existing art. This is not a secret.

High on Life is like that, except the jokes aren't funny and I hate the characters. It's an extremely derivative video game that relies on conventions that were ...

The gun is just Morty. Also, the gun is just Morty. I can intellectualise and dissect it all day: the fact is most of the jokes are B-tier at best and would be written out for something better in Rick & Morty. You can turn this down, or even off, but if a positive note on the talking gun game is ‘the guns don’t have to talk!’, you probably have a problem. It wants to be Ratchet in the same way Hoops wants to be Rick & Morty. [High on Life](https://www.thegamer.com/tag/high-on-life/) is like that, except the jokes aren’t funny and I hate the characters. I don’t like the trend of increasingly dark (visually and narratively) third person adventures being the only measure of a good game these days, and High on Life’s colourful world and creatively wacky characters are a break from that. Long drawn out conversations that might eventually find a gag or two do not work when they force me to put down the controller instead of getting on with the game. [Rick & Morty](https://www.thegamer.com/tag/rick-and-morty/) where nothing really happens, but you just go along with it because the jokes are funny and you like the characters? First, the silliness of Roiland et al does not translate well to a video game. [Ratchet & Clank](https://www.thegamer.com/tag/ratchet-and-clank-rift-apart/), which it obviously aspires to be, but they aren’t even in the same galaxy. High on Life feels like the development cycle involved taking all the money, time, and effort that might have gone into gunplay, level design, quest writing, traversal, and world building and shunted it into writing jokes.

Technically proficient and lovely to look at, 'High on Life' commits the sin of making the shooting part of the game feel underwhelming.

[High on Life](https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/high-on-life) is available on [Xbox One](https://www.nme.com/tag/xbox-one), [Xbox Series X Ultimately, it’s the world that kept me trudging through the boredom of High on Life. Nosing around the diverse environments with raytracing turned on is excellent and I found that the jokes that were seen rather than heard landed a lot better with me, too. The world, and even the gun you’re holding, might judge you but this is a shooter, and a bad one at that. A lot of Roiland’s humour seems to sit around the idea of making people uncomfortable and turning that discomfort into jokes. The game adores poking fun at the players for using a gun to solve every situation, but offers no other way to express player agency. Your starter gun lets you knock enemies into the air and juggle them with bullets. The time-dilation gun also fires a spray of quills that stick in enemies, like I’m not the biggest fan of Rick and Morty, and the humour here seems to riff mostly on that. This starts when xeno scum invades your cul de sac and circumstances involve you getting your hands on a talking handgun, Kenny, that will chatter incessantly for the rest of the game. Occasionally, when things are all going well, you’ll enjoy a fun blast as you chain alternate fires and dance through the enemies, meleeing with aplomb. Like a lot of High on Life, it’s surprising, but it doesn’t necessarily land.

Whatever you call them, the High on Life bounties are the main quests that will progress you through the story on your mission to take down the G3 cartel.

[High on Life achievements](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/high-on-life-achievements/)- full list to unlock [High on Life guns](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/high-on-life-guns-weapons/)- unlock all weapons [High on Life 2](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/high-on-life-2-sequel-exclusive/)- sequel hopes revealed For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the [Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/). You'll find that there's more to this game than just its bounties, even if they are the main attraction! (Press up on the D-pad if you're ever unsure where to go.) You may have already guessed this because there are seven spaces on the bounty-hunting machine that ends up in your living room. In some ways, these bounties are fairly linear levels, with a clear goal/target in each one. There's plenty of other stuff to do, as well, besides bounty-hunting. It's always good to know roughly how far you are through a game, after all. [TV Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/) or [Streaming Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/streaming-guide/). We'd particularly recommend chatting to the food vendor, Blorto, who you'll find in Blim City. You are, after all, something of a bounty-hunter in the game. Once you've reached this point, it's only natural to wonder how many there are of these bounties (which could also be termed missions, chapters, quests or levels).

"Now you can tell that annoying blue guy (and all the other chatty guns) to shut it!"

[observed by GamesRadar](https://www.gamesradar.com/for-the-second-time-in-under-a-week-a-game-patches-its-annoying-sidekick-character/), High on Life isn’t the only game to get a feature like this. As you can see, these patch notes look very much like what you’d expect from a game these days: A chunk of digital nips and tucks to address outstanding bugs, improve quality of life features, and tune up certain gameplay mechanics. But when it arrives in a video game form, where you’ll spend multiple hours at a time playing as opposed to a 30-minute silly cartoon, the constant chatter is sure to get annoying.

High on Life has no problem crossing an invisible line in gaming: players can't kill kids. Here's how the game plays with the unspoken rule.

[more boring](https://mobile.twitter.com/RGKeats/status/1602533662054031360) than actually edgy. Some find it goes beyond dull to being [outright obnoxious](https://mobile.twitter.com/TopherXPwns/status/1602651599486189570). [discuss it](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2fnabh/child_killing_in_games/) and [debate it](https://www.quora.com/Why-can%E2%80%99t-we-kill-children-in-video-games-Considering-it%E2%80%99s-all-virtual-why-are-children-in-video-games-always-invulnerable-if-they-exist-at-all). Arguably, this moment and the debate around it sum up the mixed feelings about "High On Life" and Roiland-style humor in general. In the '90s, the ["Mortal Kombat" franchise](https://www.svg.com/762507/the-untold-truth-of-the-mortal-kombat-franchise/) tested the boundaries of violence and gore in games. The fact that this scene, and the [achievement associated with it](https://mobile.twitter.com/CircaAzul/status/1602591263508807680), call out this unspoken rule in games is what makes it so funny for some gamers. Commentators like Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of [Zero Punctuation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLXOp0bHDOs&t=228s) have joked about it. [encounter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WXwAY85eMg) that players can experience while traveling through the slums, they will be confronted by an obnoxious alien child that taunts them, literally daring them to shoot. More recently, games have been introducing more [nudity and sexual elements](https://www.svg.com/61380/uncomfortable-love-scenes-video-games/) with mixed results. On the other hand, plenty of people [found the moment](https://mobile.twitter.com/R3cZ_/status/1602470753546383360), and overall style of the game, hilarious. The new game from Justin Roiland, of " [characters deemed offensive or inappropriate](https://www.svg.com/153201/the-most-controversial-characters-in-games/) to [features that drew the ire of fans and critics](https://www.svg.com/1052001/controversial-features-games-immediately-regretted/), conflict is quite common.

High on Life locks you in place while conversations that I think are supposed to have jokes in them swirl around you, and there is no escape.

Humour is one of the most subjective art forms, and so High on Life needs to understand that not everyone will find it funny and accommodate that. High on Life forces this situation and superglues you to your seat. The whole arc would be an underbaked b-plot if it happened to Summer Smith, and you're held hostage by it. In fact, I'd much prefer there be a side quest of some description to add some texture to the game. But I'm not sure he knows video games all that well, so High on Life tries to be a TV show. I love [Rick & Morty](https://www.thegamer.com/tag/rick-and-morty/) and like Solar Opposites enough, so it's not a personal issue with the style of humour or Roiland's delivery - although I would have liked a voice other than Morty's for the main gun.

The penultimate boss fight in the game doesn't hold back the weirdness, and you'll need to keep your wits, so here's how to beat Nipulon in High on Life.

That’s how you can beat Nipulon in High on Life. This means you have one bounty left to complete before you finish the game. While you might need to see how long is left by using our [High on Life length](https://www.theloadout.com/high-on-life/game-length) guide, we can assure you that you’re coming to the end of your journey once you beat Nipulon. We recommend using Gus in this segment, as well as the second one, as he deals heavy damage to him and can bring his health bar down quickly. The first time, you’ll enter a weird world where you need to talk to Gene. The G3 Cartel is almost wiped out at this point, with only two high-up members of the evil group left to kill, and that’s why you need to find out how to beat Nipulon in High on Life.

High on Life is the latest comedic title from Squanch Games that puts players in the shoes of a human that ends up in an alien world where he wields a gun ...

However, players should know that High on Life will auto-save often, and when it does, an icon will appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen. However, for those that would like to choose a different save file, they can press the button that says 'Load Game.' There are three save slots to pick from. There's no save game option in the menus, and there won't be any physical save points to interact with like other video games.

A review of High on Life, the latest entry from Justin Roiland's Squanch Games, talking about the game's trippy alien atmosphere and delightful stupidity.

High on Life does feature a few minor performance issues and bugs as well, but these aren’t as intrusive as some of the style choices in the game. This review is based on a PC (Steam) copy of the game supplied by the publisher. The game’s humor is definitely going to be hit or miss for many, but nevertheless I do feel High on Life is worth taking a peek at in spite of this. Some of the NPCs deliver jokes that lean more towards cringe such as an NPC that delights in urinating on himself and proceeds to do so right in front of you. I’d never seen or heard of the film before, but enjoyed watching it in full while crouching and pretending to sit on the couch. In this run of High on Life, I decided to crouch down and listen to him insult me until he ran out of dialogue. Characters will often acknowledge your actions outside of ones tied to objectives as well, such as if you jump around on the shelves in the pawn shop you’ll be mocked and asked if you’re having fun up there. In the beginning, High on Life is a game that feels like a lightly structured sandbox set up to play around in rather than a straightforward narrative with a few side paths thrown in as padding. To my delight, the game responded to this bizarre decision by offering up slivers of bonus content here and there. Even though you have this freedom, the game does has a way of distinctly rewarding and interacting with players patient (or stubborn) enough to sit through each moment right on through ‘til the end. However, my curiosity got the better of me here and I decided, you know what, I have some background entertainment and snacks, let’s leave the game on and wait an hour and see what happens. While this slow-baked, yet filling game may not be for everyone, those able to click with it and its signature blend of humor are in for one hell of a great time.

While many AAA video games boast about including days' worth of content to enjoy, Squanch Games' High on Life goes for a much shorter runtime. Instead of being ...

[High on Life is not a perfect game](https://gamerant.com/high-on-life-rick-and-morty/), but its short length helps improve the experience immensely. [may have stretched High on Life's content even thinner](https://gamerant.com/high-on-life-dlc-plans/), leading to a far less enjoyable experience. The story is quick enough that a lot of players may not even be bothered by the reuse of assets, even if this would have become noticeable should Squanch Games try to tell a grander story. High on Life will spend a couple of hours introducing various planets and enemies, and then spent the last couple revisiting them. [High on Life is not short on laugh-out-loud moments](https://gamerant.com/high-on-life-achievements-comedy/). It has a bad habit of reusing enemies and locales, and Justin Roiland's brand of comedy can sometimes be too much for people.

Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland is front and center in High on Life, a new sci-fi comedy shooter. But opinions are heavily divided.

With such divisive opinions on the game, largely set by personal enjoyment of Roiland’s signature style, it’s probably best that High on Life is available on a subscription service like Xbox Game Pass. ‘It’s rare to see a video game as self-assured as this – with the development team at Squanch so confident in its vision that it’s willing to blow past conventional wisdom and settle for astral strangeness. ‘Ultimately, it’s the world that kept me trudging through the boredom of High on Life’,’ Tucker said. Several reviews point to lacklustre shooting mechanics and technical issues as elements that drag the experience of the game down, no matter what the reviewer’s personal opinion of Roiland’s style is. It’s a first-person sci-fi game that heavily features Roiland’s unique brand of verbose comedy, that comes through primarily in the form of talking guns. However, the reception to High on Life has been far more mixed.